10 posts categorized "Gluten intolerance"

October 08, 2010

Celiac is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. A gluten-free diet is the only treatment.

But most people with celiac don't know it, and a child will visit an average of eight pediatricians before getting diagnosed, according to the U of C. If undiagnosed and untreated, it can lead to osteoporosis, infertility, neurological conditions and, in rare cases, cancer.

The free screening also includes a panel discussion, led by Dr. Stefano Guandalini, founder and medical director of the Celiac Disease Center.

In additional to Guandalini, the panel will include international experts and specially trained dietitians.

WHERE TO GO: The University of Chicago Medical Center-Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine, 5758 S. Maryland Ave. Chicago. The screening is on the fourth floor.

September 17, 2009

After reading here that there isn't yet a test for gluten sensitivity (which is different than celiac disease and a wheat allergy), several readers wrote to tell me there are in fact tests; they're just not well known and not offered by most physicians.

But when I doublechecked with my sources, they confirmed that it is still not possible to test for gluten sensitivity. That's not to say it doesn't exist. We just can't reliably diagnose it yet. Here's the response from Dr. Stefano Guandalini, director of the University of Chicago's Celiac Disease Center.

"While many labs may offer ways to test for gluten sensitivity, none of the tests offered (I repeat: none) has had any validation or FDA approval," said Guandalini, chief of the section of gastroenterology at the U of C's Comer Children's Hospital.

"A recent national meeting on celiac disease discussed this issue at length and while the scientific community agrees on the existence of non-celiac, non-wheat allergic gluten sensitivity, there are doubts on what constitutes this entity and there is absolutely no agreement (and no evidence) and how to diagnose it."

September 09, 2009

Gluten intolerance is a generic, umbrella term that means your body has an adverse reaction to gluten; it includes celiac, wheat allergies and gluten sensitivity. You can't test for "intolerance," but you can diagnose the other conditions.

CELIAC DISEASE: An immune system reaction that causes inflammation in the small intestine when a person eats any food containing gluten, a protein found in wheat.

How to test for it: A blood test followed by an endoscopy to check damage to the small intestine. Do not go on a gluten-free diet before getting the biopsy, as it can change the results. To get a blood test, try the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center's Annual Free Blood Screening, which will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Oct. 10. The "Ask the Experts" panel, which is open to the public, starts at 10:30 a.m.

You're eligible for a free screening if:

You eat a regular diet (you haven't excluded wheat)

You have a close family member with biopsy-confirmed celiac disease

You have persistent gastrointestinal symptoms

You or a close family member has type 1 diabetes

You have a related autoimmune condition such as rheumatoid arthritis

It's free, but preregistration is mandatory. Call 773-702-7593 or go here for more info.

How to test for it: Doctors use a variety of tools, including a food diary, an elimination diet, a skin test or a blood test, or a food challenge, which involves eating capsules of the food under supervision.

GLUTEN SENSTIVITY: An immune system reaction to gluten.

How to test for it: There isn't yet a test for gluten sensitivity. If you've tested negative for both wheat allergy and celiac disease but still react to gluten, you may have gluten sensitivity.

If you're thinking about jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon, keep in mind that gluten is lurking everywhere. Breads, cakes and pastas are obvious sources. But the protein is also hidden in some brands of these common processed foods. Look for the words "artificial colors," "modified food starch," "malt," "natural flavor" and "brewer's yeast" to identify potential gluten.

The gluten-free diet is no picnic. So when Julie Pech (left) put her 12-year-old son Blake on the wheat-free eating plan, she also stopped eating the ubiquitous grain to help him make the transition.

Today, she feels so good that she has no plans to return to her old bread-eating ways.

"My head is clearer, and I'm lean and healthy," said Pech, of Littleton, Colo. "For whatever reason, gluten makes me very heavy and tired."

Once strictly a daunting regimen for those suffering from celiac disease, the gluten-free diet has broken into the mainstream. An estimated 1 percent of the U.S. population has celiac, an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine, according to 2003 data published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The only treatment is a lifelong dietary challenge: avoiding gluten, the protein found in common grains such as wheat, barley, spelt and rye.

But the demand for gluten-free products is rising, a movement also fueled by health-conscious consumers, parents of autistic children and breast-feeding moms. In 2008, more than 1,000 new gluten-free foods and beverages were introduced; sales have grown by an average of 28 percent during the last five years, according to the market research group Packaged Facts.

General Mills Inc., which last year released a gluten-free version of its Chex cereal, now offers gluten-free cookies and cakes under its Betty Crocker brand. At Baltimore's Camden Yards, baseball fans can buy gluten-free pretzels; Coors Field in Denver has an entire gluten-free concession stand.

And in Elisabeth Hasselbeck's best-selling new book, "The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide," the co-host of "The View" says that "even people with no health issues have a great deal to gain by giving up gluten." Among the claimed advantages: weight loss, more energy, increased attention and better digestion.

It's enough to make you wonder: Should I leap onto the gluten-free bandwagon?

They still eat. The Doherty family simply avoids processed foods -- which can be stripped of essential nutrients and contain excess sugar, salt, fat and chemical preservatives -- and seeks out gluten-free and low-allergen fare.

"It's not like you have to choke freaky food down," said Doherty, a naturopathic doctor in New Hampshire who specializes in food allergies and celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder. (Here's a link to her own favorite superfoods, which she compiled for Living Without Magazine.)

More than 11 million Americans are estimated to have food allergies, which occur when the immune system reacts poorly to certain food. If you have an allergy, you know: Within minutes of eating the offending food, you may experience hives, swelling or have trouble breathing.

Less obvious and more common are food intolerances, which can be digestive issues that don't involve the immune system. Symptoms may include cramps, gas and bloating. Unlike with food allergies, you may be able to eat small amounts of problem foods.

But don't torture yourself. Instead, try some of these lower risk alternatives to the most common food allergies, including milk, eggs, peanuts and soy.

Apples and applesauce

In addition to vitamin C, pectin (a soluble fiber), potassium and important phytochemicals, apples contain high amounts of quercetin, which can help reduce allergy symptoms, according to a study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. German researchers recently showed organically produced apples have a 15 percent higher antioxidant capacity than conventionally produced apples.

Try this: Lightly saute slices from one apple with one diced potato and onion.

May 12, 2008

Foodies with allergies make up a widely neglected segment of the serious dining community, something Bistro 110 Executive Chef Dominique Tougne (left) is working to change.

Tougne, the father of two children with serious food allergies, has developed a series of allergy-friendly dinners "designed to make all guests feel understood, catered to and profoundly satisfied."

Tonight's prix fixe "Sans-Gluten Dinner," is the second installment of a four-part dinner series designed especially for the food lover with allergies to the staples of fine French food--nuts, dairy, gluten and shellfish.

March 21, 2008

A gluten-free, vegan diet might improve the health of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, according to Swedish researchers. The diet, they say, can help protect against heart attacks and stroke.

Is this news? Not to T. Colin Campbell, author of the book "The China Study," which details the connection between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

"I get frustrated when I see articles like this--time and time again--being published by researchers who know not that much of their findings have already been shown before," Campbell said, when I asked him if he'd seen the study.

"These earlier results are simply ignored, thus awaiting rediscovery by some future researcher or medical practitioner. This is the main question for so many similar reports...why haven't we heard this before?"

March 12, 2008

My husband and I are "gastric pains," which might be why we don't get many dinner invitations. I won't eat beef, poultry and most fish. He is allergic to milk and can't tolerate wheat gluten, found in most breads, cereals, pastas and processed foods.

"What on earth do you people eat?" friends ask.

(At left is Peggy Wagener, publisher of "Living Without" magazine, an important resource for those with food allergies and sensitivities.)